Patrick Mouratoglou shared an interesting anecdote from his time with Serena Williams as the French coach once deliberately lied to the American because he wanted to see if that could help the American mentally forget the issue she was dealing with.
If you can recall, Williams hit a low spot in mid-2012 when she suffered a shock French Open first-round loss to Virginie Razzano. After the loss, the American gave a call to Mouratoglou and they started working during the grass season. Over the next decade, they won 10 Grand Slams as a player/coach duo.
In a video posted on his Instagram, Mouratoglou said that there was one Wimbledon year when Williams simply couldn't make a shot at the net. After analyzing it and realizing that the former world No. 1 stopped going to the net because she lost her confidence, the French coach made a bold move and knowingly praised the American's net game while it was bad at the time.
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Mouratoglou: I told Williams you win 80 percent of points at the net, which was not true...
"Serena, I don't remember which year she played with Wimbledon and she was missing all the volleys at the start of the tournament and because she was missing at the net, she was scared to move inside the court and I mean, it's automatic when you miss at the net, you're not fast enough to go take it and hit a winner and I thought, 'Oh, if she continues to play like this, we're in trouble,'" Mouratoglou said.
"So after the match, I remember she was backing and we always talk after the match and I said to her, 'When I see a short ball, I'm so comfortable, I sleep on my two ears.' Why you say that? 'I said because you win 80% of the points at the net,' which was not true."
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Williams was surprised by Mouratoglou's comment, but she accepted it. And that was the game-changer.
"'I thought I was terrible at the net,' that's what she told me. 'I thought I was terrible.' She started to play without any fear forward because she believed it, she started to be really efficient and she won 80% of the points at the net until the end of the tournament and she won Wimbledon. This thing that was not true, happened to be true. I believe a lot in that," Mouratoglou added.
Mouratoglou couldn't remember which year exactly it was, but it could have been one of those three - 2012, 2015 and 2016 - since those are the years when Williams won Wimbledon under the guidance of the French coach.
